For many years the need for practical, economical, convenient sanitary protectors for telephone handsets has been recognized. Some observing and caring individuals have seen that millions of people each day find it necessary to grasp a telephone handset, particularly at a telephone pay station, with their hand and bring the handset into close contact with their mouth and ear. The presence of harmful bacteria is not the only problem. Many persons find the closeness of contact by which the user must bring the handset into close intimate contact with the hand, ear and mouth, somewhat offensive.
Telephone technicians, as regular step in their maintenance of telephone pay stations, clean the handset. However, many dozens or hundreds of uses may occur between cleanings by the telephone technicians. For those who are not satisfied with dependence upon such routine cleaning for their personal protection, there has been no truly satisfactory handset cover or means of protection.
Examples of previously patented protective covers are shown in the following patents:
______________________________________ 4,819,265 J. A. Collella April 4, 1989 4,546,217 J. L. Frehn October 8, 1985 4,751,731 D. O'Connor June 14, 1988 4,964,161 A. R. Trowbridge, Jr. October 16, 1990 4,953,567 D. Ward September 4, 1990 ______________________________________
A number of other patents have issued for protective covers for telephone handsets. The purpose of these covers is primarily to protect the telephone handset itself from damage. Examples are:
______________________________________ 4,736,418 D. M. Steadman April 5, 1988 2,575,280 B. Long November 13, 1951 ______________________________________
Some patented structures are designed to be protective covers for the handset and also some protection for the user. An example of such a patent is:
______________________________________ 3,962,555 D. E. Efaw June 8, 1976 ______________________________________
Disposable sanitary covers in a convenient package are disclosed in U.S. Patent:
______________________________________ 4,953,703 L. Virginio September 4, 1990 ______________________________________
It has been proposed that sanitary covers be made available to the user via a dispenser in the telephone set itself. Such a concept is disclosed in U.S. Patent:
______________________________________ 4,392,028 R. L. Saxton July 5, 1983 ______________________________________
I have examined each of these patents carefully to see if they really filled the need for handset sanitation. I have been troubled with the fact that despite the extensive number of attempts to solve this perennial problem, one still finds practical sanitary protective covers for telephone sets generally unavailable. In fact, I have never to this day seen commercially available sanitary protective covers for telephones even though I have been aware of this problem and need for some time.
Some of the above protective covers are designed to protect the telephone handset from damage, some are of such large size that their attachment to a telephone handset may make the handset cumbersome to use. Some employ a germicide. However, I find that a simple effective protector which covers all contact points of the handset with gauze or tissue is sufficient. Likewise, it appears that the prior art protective covers for handsets are not designed for attachment to the handset in the normal motion used in grasping a pay telephone or other telephone handset whereby the protective cover naturally falls into place for effortless installation and rapid removal in natural hand movements in replacing the handset on its switchhook.